Peaches, Pride, and Pickleball: Southern Pickleball Academy's Impact in South Carolina Schools

There is, in western South Carolina, a high school surrounded by peach orchards. Named for a storied U.S. Senator, it is located in a proud county, “Home to 19 Governors.”  Walking through the gleaming hallways, this pride-of-place is evident. And now, there is another reason to be proud: pickleball.

Pickleball is not new to Strom Thurmond High School in Edgefield County.  For three years now, Coach Heather Webb has had her P.E. students playing pickleball with worn-out equipment. A little backstory shines a light into her motivation. Coach Webb travels 75 minutes every day from her home in the Columbia area to teach at this school.  It’s worth every minute on the road, she says.  Her students are great, their parents are supportive, and she loves her co-workers and administration. Her enthusiasm for her job shines as bright as the finish on the school’s floors.

Yet working with worn-out equipment inherited from previous teachers is not easy. Piecing together old nets and broken frames, Coach Webb squeezes enough courts in her gym to allow, in her words, “maximum engagement.”  A box filled with a hodge-podge of old mismatched paddles sits in a corner of her storage room: plastic junior paddles and wooden paddles showing the effects of hard wear. Beside it, a similar box of balls: some regular pickleballs and some wiffle balls, but mostly cracked.  It is with this equipment that Coach Webb has taught her students the game of pickleball.

Until now.

Southern Pickleball Academy recently paid her a visit. After hearing of her passion for teaching pickleball in spite of poor conditions, the Academy gifted her school with a complete set of pickleball equipment: three Selkirk wheeled nets, 30 pickleball paddles, and 30 balls.  Coach Webb was over the moon with the donation.  “It’s like Christmas in August!” she exclaimed.

The shine on their floors is no match for the shine on the faces of these students and their coach at the donation of pickleball equipment to Strom Thurmond High School.

This story is not unique to Strom Thurmond High School. Money for P.E. equipment is not prioritized in schools, something we have witnessed first-hand in every one of the more than twenty schools we have donated equipment to. And yet, donations such as this bring a sense of pride to the students, demonstrating the value of physical activity to a generation more plugged into devices than paddles.

In the coming weeks, Southern Pickleball Academy will be making similar donations to Edgefield County Public School District’s two middle schools and four elementary schools, helping this county feel even more proud as their youth play this engaging sport of pickleball.

Your help is essential to our school programs.  Whether you donate with a Qualified Charitable Distribution or other donation, or whether you can donate your time by mentoring a school pickleball club, you will be helping our next generation learn valuable skills. Email info@southernpickleballacademy.org and we will help you help these kids put down their phones and pick up a paddle! Now that’s a peach of a promise!